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Kennedy Joins Brothers at Arlington

Obama, in Eulogy, Calls Senator 'Greatest Legislator of Our Time'

Friends and family gather around the casket at the funeral for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
Press Pool

By

Louise Radnofsky in Washington and

Keith J. Winstein in Boston

Updated Aug. 30, 2009 7:42 a.m. ET

Senator Edward M. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery as darkness fell Saturday evening, steps away from the graves of his brothers Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy.

"There's something befitting about having a burial at the dying of the day," said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the archbishop emeritus of Washington and a friend of the senator's, who presided over a small ceremony attended only by the senator's immediate family and Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill.

For Mr. Kennedy, "his new life begins," the cardinal said, consoling the family and the senator's extended family "which probably must include most of America."

The cardinal read from a letter to the pope which Mr. Kennedy had asked President Obama to hand-deliver earlier this year, and the Vatican's response.

The coffin of Sen. Edward Kennedy stands in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica during his funeral mass in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston on Aug. 29. AFP/Getty Images

In his letter Mr. Kennedy described his faith and said: "I know that I have been an imperfect human being but with the help of my faith I have tried to right my path." He also told the pope that despite his illness, he continued to work for healthcare reforms which would expand coverage to everyone and include provisions for Catholic healthproviders who felt it was wrong to provide abortions.

The ceremony ended with the senator's four grandchildren sharing their memories of sailing, talking and sharing Thanksgiving.

The senator was also honored with three volleys, a military funeral ritual, which was carried out by riflemen of the U.S. Army. Mr. Kennedy served two years in the army. The flag-draped casket had been carried to the grave by eight service members, from each of the branches.

Earlier, the senator was allowed one final visit to the U.S. Capitol after his funeral procession arrived in Washington. Hundreds of legislators and current and former congressional staffers waited hours to bid their final farewells. (See related Wash Wire post.)

At his funeral in Boston, Mr. Kennedy was eulogized as a statesman, legislator and family patriarch in a two-hour funeral attended by 1,500 mourners from the highest ranks of American society.

"We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers' rights or civil rights," President Barack Obama said, in an emotional tribute to Mr. Kennedy's 47-year tenure in the U.S. senate.

The Roman Catholic ceremony, presided over by Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley, brought more than half the U.S. senate; former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and the younger former President George W. Bush; much of the cabinet; former staffers and a distinguished list of entertainers and authors. Mr. Kennedy died Tuesday, at the age of 77, after an extended battle with brain cancer.

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"My father taught me that even our most profound losses are survivable." -Ted Kennedy Jr. Courtesy of Fox News.

The mood inside was respectful but laudatory. Many guests swapped stories about the senator's outsize personality and signed guestbooks at the back of the church. "I love you," the actress Lauren Bacall wrote.

Shortly before 11 a.m., Mr. Kennedy's hearse emerged out of the low-hanging fog of a coastal storm in front of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, in Boston's working-class Mission Hill neighborhood. A military honor guard and civilian pallbearers replaced the American flag on Mr. Kennedy's casket with a white shroud, to symbolize the cloak the senator wore when baptized as a child. The church's altar shined bright white under television lighting.

Mr. Kennedy, a life-long Catholic who received his first Communion from Pope Pius XII, was feted by the city's church hierarchy despite his controversial support for abortion rights. "A few scant miles from here, the city on the hill stands less tall against the morning sky," said the Rev. J. Donald Monan, the former president of Boston College. "And the sea out toward near Nantucket is a bit more forlorn at the loss of one of its most ardent lovers."

Hundreds of people braved strong and steady rain to watch the slow motorcade from the John F. Kennedy library, where the late senator's body lay in repose for two days and was viewed by more than 25,000 people. "I'm here to thank Senator Kennedy for all the things he's done for minorities and especially immigrants," said Zulema Romero-Mendivil, who stood blocks away from the church because of security concerns.

Diana Potter carried a green balloon "for joy," she said, out of hope that Mr. Kennedy's death would spur action in Washington to provide broader access to health care. Ms. Potter said she broke her kneecap after losing her health insurance, and wasn't able to afford treatment. "Maybe this'll tweak just a few minds," she said. "You don't really feel someone's pain until you've felt it yourself."

“
Today we say goodbye to the youngest child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy. The world will long remember their son Edward as the heir to a weighty legacy; a champion for those who had none; the soul of the Democratic Party; and the lion of the U.S. Senate…
”

The president's eulogy recalled Mr. Kennedy's deal-making acumen when negotiating bills in Congress. "Teddy walked into a meeting with a plain manila envelope, and showed only the chairman that it was filled with the Texan's favorite cigars," Mr. Obama recalled, to laughs from the assembled. "When the negotiations were going well, he would inch the envelope closer to the Chairman. When they weren't, he would pull it back. Before long, the deal was done."

The senator's son, Ted Kennedy Jr., referenced the Kennedy family's tragic history and the late senator's own public scandals. "Although it hasn't been easy at times to live with this name," the younger Ted Kennedy said, "I've never been more proud of it than I am today."

"My father taught me that even our most profound losses are survivable and it is what we do with that loss, our ability to transform it into a positive event, that is one of my father's greatest lessons," he said.

Many speakers brought up Mr. Kennedy's competitive streak as a sailor and his extensive preparation for yacht races off the Massachusetts coast. The president said Mr. Kennedy's death left Americans with a "single, enduring image -- the image of a man on a boat, white mane tousled, smiling broadly as he sails into the wind, ready for whatever storms may come, carrying on toward some new and wondrous place just beyond the horizon."